Device for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines



Sept. 15, 1953 A. L. SAPP 2,652,242

DEVICE FOR CLEANING GRATE BARS OF SINTERING MACHINES Filed March a, 19482 Sheets-Sheet 1 E&

INVENTOR. A N CEL. L.5A PP.

Aqkrromvfrs.

A. L. SAPP 2,652,242

SINTERING MACHINES Sept. 15, 1953 DEVICE FOR CLEANING GRATE BARS OF 2Sheets-Shet 2 Filed March 6, 1948 INVENTOR.

BY. ANGEL. L.5AP|=:

V A? A ATTOR/VEVS.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DEVICE FOR CLEANING GRATE BARS OF SINTERINGMACHINES Ancel L. Sapp, Blackwell, kla., assignor to The American MetalCompany, Limited, New York,

. Y., a corporation of New York Application March 6, 1948, Serial No.13,367

10 Claims. (01. 26621) 1 This invention relates to an apparatus for I.The pallets are secured together in the usual cleaning grate bars ofsintering machines and manner in the form of a rotatable belt runningparticularly those having a rotatable belt of movover wheels 6 and 1 inthe usual manner. Ore or able grates held in pallets. other material tobe sintered is fed from a hop- Cleaning devices have been proposed forper 8 onto the grates and, as the wheels are recleansing adhering sinterin which the grate bars tated by a mechanism not shown in acountersupporting the sinter were struck with considerclockwisedirection, the belt assembly of pallets able force by a pivotallymounted striking memand grates passes toward the left in Fig. .1 and,

ber operating to move simultaneously a number when it reaches theburners 9, is ignited in the of the bars across the pallet. Present-dayprac- 10 usual manner. The mass on the grates burns tice employspreferably grate bars which are able from the top, air being forcedthrough the mass to withstand oxygen and sulfur dioxide at temand outthrough air boxes l0 and II under the peratures of about 1000 C., whichis the usual grates. The mass is sintered at the time that sinteringtemperature. These bars ordinarily it reaches the wheel 6 and thesintered mass is emp y alloy steels which are res sta t t0 th dischargedas each pallet passes around the lasthi h temperature gases mention d, bt thes mentioned wheel and the discharged material steels are frequentlybrittle and apt to b ea W e passes through a chute 12 to storage orfurther struck repeatedly. Regardless of breakage, this t e tm t,

type of device has proved unsatisfactory for re- Th rate bars as shownin Figs. 2 and 3 moval of sinter, with the result t a a t r the aremounted about a pivot rod l3 extending from pallets are recharged withore and brought to one side to the other of the pallet 3. These barssintering position, the flow of air has been imare arranged to lieparallel to one another and peded by the unremoved sinter and thesintering parallel to the direction of motion of the pallets. Processusing uncl a d grates has accordingly The bars in the pallets tilt aboutthe pivot point been interfered with. I 3 and are vibrated by acontinuous vibrating The principal object of the present invention, meib d b l accordingly, is to overcome these disadvantages, The tilting ofthe grate bars and vibration at least in pa t, d to provide a devicegivi thereof is arranged in order to thoroughly clean better cleaning ofthe bars and less r k the bars. It has been found that the dischargeOther objects will be in part obvious and in part of the sinter as thepallets move over the wheels pointed out hereinafter. 6 is frequentlyincomplete and that sinter still The invention accordingly comprises thenovel remains on and between the bars and may indevice and combinationsthereof, specific emterfere with proper sintering of the successivebodiments of which are described herein by way charges of ore placed onsuch grates ss r of example only and in accordance with the manmoved. Iprefer to employ a successive continuner in which I now prefer topractice the invenous vibration of the grate bars 2 in order to eftion.fect a thorough cleaning thereof. I accordingly In the acc y drawingsforming p provide beneath the pallet grate structures while of thisspecification, Figure l is a side elevation m are in an n t position arotatable partly in section of my improved appar 4 cylinder 14 and lugsl5 mounted thereon. The

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional elevation along the lugs ashere shown each sa 1 s rf ce lines 2-2 of Fig. 1; conforming to the curve of the cylinderwhich Fig. 3 is a side enlarged elevation showing the may have, forexample, a radius of 7 inches. lugs mounted on a rotatable cylinder andar- Each lug rests on and is attached to the cylinranged to contact andmove the grate bars of 19 and s an upper curved surface which is thepallets, and Fig. 4 is a plan view of the showing in Fig. 3 with thepallets and bars removed, on a smaller scale. Referring now to thedrawings, numeral I designates a support for the apparatus as a whole; 2designates movable grate bars pivotally mounted on pallets 3,,each ofwhich is supported by pairs ,of wheels 4 mounted at either end thereofand running on tracks 5 mounted on the frame the lug is about 1 inch.The breadth of the lug designated by Y in Fig. 4 is about 3 inches. Thedimensions given are preferred for a cylinder having approximately a15-inch diameter and a length of about 37 /4 inches. These dimensionswill, of course, vary with the size of the installation. The cylinder ismounted near the discharge end of the sintering apparatus beingsupported by a shaft l6 driven by a V-belt [1 passing over a groovedpulley 18, the belt being driven preferably by a motor 19. The cylinderI4 is arranged to rotate in the same direction as the travel of theinverted grate bars and the lugs contact the bars and displace thesinter. As shown more particularly in Figs. 2 and 4, the lugs havecurved or cam-like surfaces and are arranged to move the grate bars 2successively and according to a pattern of movement, preferably as shownin the figures mentioned. As there shown, the lugs are set to forinstance, at about the center of the pallet, and then successively barsaway from the center towards the outermost bars at each longitudinaledge of the pallet. For this purpose the lugs (Fig.

2) are mounted with one pair at the opposite ends or the cylinder 14.Each succeeding pair of lugs advance towards the transverse centralplane of the cylinder [4 in steps with the front edge of each successivelug being in line with the'rear edge central plane mentioned. The samearrangement is provided on the rear of the cylinder of 2. In this way,the lugs contact a grate bar at a given position on the pallet and thussuccessively other of the pallet to loosen sinter thereon. The action ofthe moving lugs on the grate bars is to give a successive continuousvibration of the grate bars. r

The cylinder '14 is mounted on an adjustable semi-elliptical springsuspension including the semi-elliptical spring '20 having a stirrupsuspension at one end 2| and an adjustable suspension provided by anupright bar 22 provided with a series of .holes 23,into which pins 24fit at the end of the spring opposite the suspension 21. By raisingor'lowering the left end of the spring in Fig. 3, the cylinder may bemoved towards'and away from the inverted pallets and grates. The reasoncertain sinters may require a more vigorous bumping than others. Byraising or lowering the cylinder and lugs, the gratebars may be moved upor down, respectively. to a freater or lesser extent. 7 a r Thesinterloosened and removed-from the pallets and grate'bars will falldownwardly into a chute 25 for collection and further use.

I have found that the apparatus operates successfull-y in usesubstantially without damage to grate bars and especially those adaptedto withstand oxygen from the air and S02 at high temperatures of theorder of 1000 C. Furthermore, the action of the rotatablecylinder andlugs is effective in cleaning out any sinter remaining on the palletsand grate bars after discharge of the main body of the sinter occurs. Y

While the invention has been described with respect to a preferredapparatus which gives satisfactory results, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art after understanding the inyention thatvariations, changes and modificaticns may be made in such apparatuswithout departing from the spirit and scope of the invention and it isintended in the appended claims move the bars, a

of the next lug and so on to the bars at positions toward the rear forthis adjustment is that i to cover all such changes and modifications.For instance, but without limitation, I have found that effectiveresults are obtained by a linear speed of the grates and pallets ofabout two feet per minute with a depth of charge of about five inches,the speed of rotation of the cylinder ll being about 43 R. P. M.Obviously, these speeds and dimensions may be varied without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim is:

1. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, movable pallets holding movable grate bars, said bars beingmounted substantially parallel to the motion of said pallets, and meansto gradually lift and lower at least one of said grate bars on one ofsaid pallets and then successively other bars on the same pallet.

2. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, movable pallets holding movable grate bars, said bars beingmounted substantially parallel to the motion of said pallets, and meansto gradually lift and lower said bars in succession in each pallet toloosen sinter.

3. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, a driven belt of movable pallets holding movable gratebars, the grate bars being mounted substantially parallel to the motionof said pallets, and means to gradually lift and lower said bars insuccession in each pallet when such pallet and bars are in an invertedposition in order to loosen sinter therefrom.

4. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, a driven belt of movable pallets holding movable gratebars, the grate bars being mounted substantially parallel to the motionof said pallets, and a rotatable series of lugs beneath the beltarranged upon rotation to contact said grate bars in succession acrosseach pallet to loosen sinter.

5. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, a driven belt of movable pallets holding movable gratebars, the grate bars being mounted substantially parallel to the motionof said pallets, a rotatable cylinder having lugs spaced on the face ofthe cylinder arr'anged'to contact and move one of said grate bars on oneof said pallets and then suecessively other bars on the same pallet. 6.In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, a driven belt of movable pallets holding movable gratebars, the grate bars being mounted substantially parallel to the motionof said pallets, and lugs set to gradually lift and lower the bars atabout the center of the pallet and then successively bars away from thecenter towards the outermost bars at each longitudinal edge of thepallet.

7. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, a driven belt of movable pallets holding movable gratebars, the grate bars being mounted substantially parallel to the motionof said pallets, and a rotatable cylinder having lugs mounted thereonwith assymetrically curved contact surfaces arranged to rotate in thesame direction as the travel of the grate bars to contact the barssuccessively" on the same pallet and displace sinter.

'8. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, a driven belt of movable pallets holding movable gratebars, the grate bars being mounted substantially parallel to the motionof said pallets, a rotatable cylinder and lugs mounted thereon arrangedto rotate in the same direction as the travel of the away from saidgrate bars.

9. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of same direction as thetravel of the grate bars to contact the bars and displace sinter, saidrotatable cylinder being mounted on a spring to permit motion of thecylinder towards and away from said grate bars.

10. In an apparatus for cleaning grate bars of sintering machines, incombination, a, driven belt of movable pallets holding movable gratebars, the grate bars being mounted substantially parallel to the motionof said pallets, a rotatable cylinder, lugs mounted thereon arranged torotate a sprin ANGEL L. SAPP.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS NumberNumber Name Date Davison et a1 Sept. 9, 1913 Hegeler et al Nov. 22, 1932Weaton et a1 Nov. 29, 1932 Thornton Oct. 1, 1940 Shallock Jan. 9, 1945MacDonald May 2, 1950 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Germany Dec. 5, 1931

